A large study by four research groups in China and the US concluded: “International trade is contributing to the globalization of emission and pollution as a result of the production of goods (and their associated emissions) in one region for consumption in another region.”

The research studied worldwide premature deaths caused by one certain type of air polllution and found that of those “about […] 22 per cent were associated with goods and services produced in one region for consumption in another.” and went on to conclude that “the transboundary health impacts of [this type of] pollution associated with international trade are greater than those associated with long-distance atmospheric pollutant transport.” In particular: “consumption in western Europe and the USA is linked to more than 108,600 premature deaths in China.”
(Nature, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v543/n7647/full/nature21712.html).

“When we see pictures of terrible smog in Beijing, we have a tendency to point fingers and say they should clean up their stuff,” says Steven Davis, a scientist at the University of California and co-author of the paper, in an interview with the weekly New Scientist. “But that’s a little unfair because when you and I go to Walmart and buy a lawn chair, it’s a few cents cheaper, and as a result people are dying in China.”

Europe and the US do not come off scot-free, though: each year some 3000 Europeans die as a result of pollution from Chinese factories, while an earlier study found that around a quarter of California’s smog is caused by air-borne pollution from China.

Hans